Disquietude Podcast Process

Taking stock

I’m really digging doing this podcast, Disquietude. A few monthly episodes in, the structure feels good: intro, then half an hour or so of music uninterrupted (multiple artists, all with their approval), then track-by-track commentary, including audio interview elements, plus an essay. I want to play with the format more as I proceed. Main thing I was reminded of this time around was to do the work over time, not try to do it all in one day. Keeps it simpler, and leaves room to fine-tune. Also: record my voice at night, when the world is quieter and I’m calmer. I really enjoy the transitional audio elements, 12 seconds each, during the track commentary, reminding the listener about the individual tracks as they’re described. Main thing I want to do next is make the audio essay at the end more audio-ish, using sound as part of the story, not overkill, but as light additions.

Disquietude Podcast Episode 0005

Ambient music by Lesley Flanigan, Dave Seidel, KMRU, Celia Hollander, and John Hooper plus an interview with Flanigan, commentary, and a short essay about reading waveforms


This is the fifth episode of the Disquietude podcast of ambient electronic music.

The goal of the Disquietude podcast is to collect adventurous work in the field of ambient electronic music. What follows is all music that captured my imagination, and I hope that it appeals to your imagination as well.

All five tracks of music are featured with the permission of the individual artists or record labels. Below is the structure of the episode with time codes for the tracks, the spoken annotation of the tracks, an interviews with one of the musicians (Lesley Flanigan), and a brief essay about reading waveforms.

02:15 Lesley Flanigan’s “Headphone Space”

08:09 Dave Seidel’s “For LMY and MZ”

15:51 KMRU’s “Figures Emerge”

23:34 Celia Hollander’s “5:59 PM”

26:55 John Hooper’s “Underwater Stream”

29:20 Annotation Begins

32:39 Lesley Flanigan Interview

39:53 “Reading Waveforms”

42:00 Credits

42:59 Closing Music

43:26 End

Thanks for listening.

Produced and hosted by Marc Weidenbaum. Disquietude theme music by Jimmy Kipple, with vocal by Paula Daunt. Logo by Boon Design.

Disquietude Podcast Episode 0004

Ambient music by Belly Full of Stars, Christian Carrière, Femi Shonug​a-Flem​ing, Jeff Rona, Jostijn Ligtvoet, and Patricia Wolf, plus interviews and commentary

This is the fourth episode of the Disquietude podcast of ambient electronic music.

The goal of the Disquietude podcast is to collect adventurous work in the field of ambient electronic music. What follows is all music that captured my imagination, and I hope that it appeals to your imagination as well.

All six tracks of music are featured with the permission of the individual artists. Below is the structure of the episode with time codes for the tracks, the spoken annotation of the tracks, interviews with two of the musicians (Jeff Rona and Patricia Wolf), and a brief essay about voice assistants.

02:07 Belly Full of Stars’ “Pattern 5”

06:20 Christian Carrière’s “Sacred Acoustics T004”

08:02 Femi Shonuga-Fleming’s “Ambient Live Looping Drone with Eurorack and Elektron Octatrack”

15:50 Jeff Rona’s “Vapor 6”

23:37 Jostijn Ligtvoet’s “Twilight and Fire”

32:02 Patricia Wolf’s “Snow Falling on Rough Horsetail and Dead Oak Leaves”

33:28 Annotation Begins

35:25 Patricia Wolf Interview

43:23 Jeff Rona Interview

46:11 “OK, Giggle”

48:11 Credits

49:10 Closing Music

49:36 End

All the music here happens to be by solo musicians. These consist of Belly Full of Stars (aka Kim Rueger), of Nashville, Tennessee; Christian Carrière, based in Montréal, Québec; Femi Shonuga-Fleming, a RISD student based in New York; Jeff Rona, a favorite film composer of mine, who is based in Los Angeles; Jostijn Ligtvoet, a cellist based in the Netherlands; and Patricia Wolf, who provided a wintry field recording from near where she lives in Portland, Oregon.

All the music heard here is instrumental, which is to say there is no prominent vocal part – or at least there’s no intelligible vocal part – and thus it’s suitable for background listening. It’s all ambient, which is to say it’s also suitable for close, concentrated listening. That dual sense of potential uses, both inattentive and attentive, both background and foreground, is the hallmark of fine ambient music.

Belly Full of Stars’ “Pattern 5” is off the album Aura: triplicaterecords.bandcamp.com.

Christian Carrière’s “Sacred Acoustics T004” first appeared on his SoundCloud account, soundcloud.com/christiancarriere/.

Femi Shonuga-Fleming’s “Ambient Live Looping Drone with Eurorack and Elektron Octatrack” first appeared on YouTube.

Jeff Rona’s “Vapor 6” is from his forthcoming album, Vapor, due out March 5, 2021.

Jostijn Ligtvoet’s “Twilight and Fire” first appeared, at roughly twice the length heard here, on YouTube.

Patricia Wolf’s “Snow Falling on Rough Horsetail and Dead Oak Leaves” first appeared on her SoundCloud account, soundcloud.com/patriciawolf_music

Thanks for listening.

Produced and hosted by Marc Weidenbaum. Disquietude theme music by Jimmy Kipple, with vocal by Paula Daunt. Logo by Boon Design.

Disquietude Podcast Episode 0003

Ambient music from Dance Robot Dance, Jeannine Schulz, Orbital Patterns, Alan Bland, Heymun, and Kin Sventa

This is the third episode of the Disquietude podcast of ambient electronic music.

The goal of the Disquietude podcast is to collect adventurous work in the field of ambient electronic music. What follows is all music that captured my imagination, and I hope that it appeals to your imagination as well.

All six tracks of music are featured with the permission of the individual artists. Below is the structure of the episode with time codes for the tracks:

00:00 theme and intro

02:01 Dance Robot Dance’s “Tangents”

09:43 Jeannine Schulz’s “Beacon”

14:50 Orbital Patterns’ “Found in the Fog”

22:15 Alan Bland’s Boulder siren field recording

26:58 Heymun’s “Ambient Cello & Strings on the OP-1”

29:31 Kin Sventa’s “Octatrack Saxophone Drone”

35:56 track notes

40:01 outro

41:39 end

Thanks for listening.

Produced and hosted by Marc Weidenbaum. Disquietude theme music by Jimmy Kipple, with vocal by Paula Daunt. Logo by Boon Design.

Continue reading “Disquietude Podcast Episode 0003”

Disquietude Podcast Episode 0002

Music from Naoyuki Sasanami, Geneva Skeen, Jeanann Dara and Jherek Bischoff, R. Beny, Bana Haffar, Scanner, Yann Novak

This is the second episode of the Disquietude podcast of ambient electronic music. (There’s an odd little glitch at the opening, but otherwise it seems to sound good.) All seven tracks of music are featured with the permission of the individual artists or their record labels. It’s currently on SoundCloud, and will shortly be at Mixcloud, YouTube, iTunes, and Stitcher. There’s also an RSS feed, should you need it.

Below is the structure of the episode with time codes for the tracks:

00:00 theme and intro

01:42 Naoyuki Sasanami’s “Winter”

05:12 Geneva Skeen’s “Ambivalence”

10:42 Jeanann Dara and Jherek Bischoff’s “Jherek”

17:46 R. Beny’s “Basin”

23:21 Bana Haffar’s “Memoriam”

30:27 Scanner’s “Captiva 7”

35:44 Yann Novak’s “Surroundings (Excerpt)”

44:22 track notes

49:18 essay on room tone

51:50 outro

53:19 end

What follows is a rough transcript of the spoken material in the podcast, as well as links to the artists whose work is included: Continue reading “Disquietude Podcast Episode 0002”